The 9% Edge

CHAPTER 6Measuring What Matters

Only what gets measured has the potential to be improved.

“I think we’re missing $32,000 from the month.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked Jerry.

“I don’t know, but something is off,” he replied.

Jerry and I had our desks in the same office. Although we could have changed this arrangement at any time, we always kept things the way they were. We had a remarkable ability to tune each other out while we were working.

My cherry executive desk faced the door. Two black armchairs sat in front for guests. There was another cherry desk in my office that faced the wall, down to the left of the door – that was Jerry’s.

I got up from my chair, walked over to his desk, and looked down at the financial reports he was looking at.

Jerry was an older man, in his early sixties, a former marine who had retired as CFO from another company one town over.

During a business lunch a few years prior, I was discussing that between expansion, real estate projects, and the nonprofit I started, I needed to make some hires. I happened to share that I was looking for a controller, in-house accounting, a CFO – I really didn’t know what I needed at that time, but knew I needed help. Delegating the financial aspect is huge, and it felt even bigger and more challenging to me at the time because that’s the part I really enjoyed.

One of the guys at lunch turned to me and said, “I might know someone. He just retired but I’m not sure you’d want to work with him.” The word “but” ...